So What Does It Feel Like?

[George12]

Here is my dilemma:

I am pretty sure I have gyne but before I get surgery I am going to lose most of my fat. I have huge love handles, and fat around my stomac but by no means extremely overweight. I am 6'3 190 and could be around 170. What I am wondering is if since I have had the fat on my chest for so long I don't know what a non-fatty chest looks like, let alone what is abnormal.

My question is, when feeling for gynecomastia what do you look for? When I squeeze around the areola I feel something that seems like a lifesaver gummie behind it. Is this a normal part of my body or is this infact the gyne?

Thanks for the help.

[Toneloc3]

yea. a normal chest should have nothing behind the nipple except fat or muscle if you feel something directly behind the areola, thats the gland youll be getting removed. lose the weight itll help because you wont have to get as much lipo.. as for what a normal chest is supposed to be like..flex your chest and palpate(feel) around the outside of your upper chest for your pec, follow it down and youll get an idea. BUt remember a normal chest isnt completely flat. it contours. its got shape. good luck with your surgery man.

-loc3

[Paa_Paw]

I've read a few dozen descriptions of what people feel. If there was a great deal of consistency, I'd pass it along.

One guy will tell you there is a lump like a large pea. Someone else will describe a disk of hard tissue behind the nipple. Others will describe a variety of different things or even no palpable mass at all.

You need an objective opinion, this is not something you can do reliably for yourself.

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Fat can feel hard or soft -- and gland can feel hard or soft.  There is no way a lay person can determine whether they have either one (it is usually a combination).  And it doesn't really matter!  What does matter is whether you have an excess of tissue on your chest (particularly under or near the areola) -- which would by definition constitute gynecomastia. 

A good way to determine this is to pinch the skin/fat layer just under your collarbone.  That is your reference point.  Then continue pinching down your chest to your lower rib cage.  If you have gynecomastia, there will be a thickened pinch around/under the areola.  Whether that thickening is fat or gland is irrelevant because it is the excess tissue (fat/gland/or both) which is the problem. 

Once you have determined that you have excess tissue, then what next?  If you are very slender, then major dieting is not an answer.  If you are of moderate build, then try dieting -- but be aware that breast tissue does not respond to diet or exercise.  Many men on this site have dieted/exercised and have seen their chest decrease somewhat in size.  What decreased was the fat component of the gynecomastia -- the breast tissue remains.

Dr Jacobs